Cursed Items in 2nd edition?

[Matt Autry]

So I recently acquired this ring that, me being the greedy svirfneblin and having recently lost a few magic items that were quite close to me (dagger of putrefication, ring of AC 0, shortsword of backstabbing +2), decided to put said ring on that came out of a sealed jar.

Big surprise, it was cursed, but over the course of a week, my character started growing horns as well as sabretooth like fangs (still trying to draw a mental picture of a deep gnome with horns and tusks).

Basically posting here wanting to get some help or insight as to what y'all might think this ring is.

Here's a list of what it does (to my knowledge):

Disintegrate 1/week
Cure Insanity (or other feeblemind like effects) 1/week
Cure Serious Wounds 3/day
Lightning Bolt 1/day
Invisibility 1/day
Air Walk 1/day
Wraithform 1/day

It gives me immunity to all disease, as well as provides some protection against paralysis (not exactly like free action).

Any insight y'all could give me would be wonderful as this has been boggling me for a number of weeks now and had I the books I would simply scour through them until I was able to find it to get an idea of what my character is in for!

 

[Redthistle]

I think the primary source material for the ring might well be your DM's imagination. That mix of "symptoms" doesn't match any magical item from 2e that I am aware of.

And what a mix that is! Aside from the "merely" cosmetic changes (heh-heh-heh) those all seem to be beneficial powers. If this has some other affliction awaiting your deep gnome, the anxiety of waiting for it to happen could prove both creepy and maddening.

Is it an intelligent artifact? Might it have a demon trapped within it, "tailoring" your PC's body to better fit its self-image when it finally emerges from the ring to take possession?

I'm sorry. I'm probably making this worse, and maybe giving that devious DM you've got even more ideas.

Hmmm. A Demon-Seed ring. That does have possibilities.

I hope I've distracted you from worrying about your gnome's new prettiness. If not, try imagining it as it might be drawn by an artist for the Simpson's TV show, sitting next to Homer at Moe's bar.

 

[Redthistle]

Gods, but I love this game!

 

[Matt Autry]

Lol yeah I should've posted this sooner but wasn't looking at all the facts. Turns out the ring wasn't meant for the party, was meant to go to this super shady super powered mage that only gives missions to ONE of the two thieves in the party (not me). So. Yeah. Huzzah for players right? Lol.

One of the best parts was when he wanted him to go infiltrate Callarduran Smoothhands SEALED OFF TEMPLE, talking the works too, illusionary terrain, magical glyphs, the whole nine yards. To retrieve a tome. The part he didn't tell us about was that the specific chamber that it was sealed inside of took 2 eggs of disintegration to get to, and then had 2 Iron Golems + this orb thingy that shot one spell per round (think it was like, disintegrate, fireball, lightning bolt, and magic missile. Oh and Phantasmal Killer, the magic missile was averaging 40 points of damage too.)

 

[Matt Autry]

Oh and, as far as intelligent goes, no clue. If it is, we (nor I) know it is. An interesting theory though. Honestly I was mostly curious to what it could be and then after a while just figured well, Hells, lets hope I don't turn into a Pit Fiend and kill the entire party. Granted that would be cool as hell but. . . Yeah.

 

[Redthistle]

It sounds like you have a great group. May the pressures of the RW not break it up.

 

[Matt Autry]

Found out what it was today. Granted it took 2 weeks of travel out of the UD back to the surface and a few encounters but (surprisingly) no one died. Then went to a Temple of Deneir where 3 sages reside and not one of them could tell me what it was, so they pointed us to an elven sage in Cormyr that was able to tell me basically every bit of lore related to it.

It's called the Ring of Kelechti (not sure if that's how it is spelled but it's pronounced ca-lech-tee). Was apparently a ring that an elven archmage wanted help with and initially sought out the aid of Devas to gain assistance with, but was turned down, so he turned to the tanaari and they helped him.

Beyond the little transformation it does (horns and teeth), the curse also includes a great aversion to any form of light, barring moonlight. So continual light or sunlight negates my dex (and subsequently my natural ac for being a Svirfneblin) as well as -2 to all attack and damage rolls.

I had already known about the transofmration which, basically I have nice long minotaur lookin' horns (not the best for disguises), so I tried using change self, changed MY appearance, but the horns and teeth remained, so that was a failure. Then our resident wizard just reduced me to about the size of a pixie and pretended I was his familiar. Fun times to be sure.

The other bad part is that, once I take it off, I get sick, and it gradually gets worse, and, basically, after 2 days of not having it on, the character dies. Not to mention, in order to use the functions of the ring, there's a sort of stat check to see if the ring functions as desired, otherwise another random effect will happen. So there's that too.

In short, basically I'm on a death clock until I either die (because everyone and their 2nd 3rd and 4th cousins are looking for the damn thing), or I disintegrate myself from a backfiring of the ring.

 

[Redthistle]

Holy goblin crap.

And the curse can't be removed in the current circumstances? Sheeesh!

 

[Matt Autry]

On a more positive note, I am the FIRST player/character to ever have an artifact in one of this particular DM's campaigns, so. Yeah. Yay for firsts eh? Lol.

 

[Redthistle]

My dwarf PC in the The One Ring game I'm playing in is enjoying the same distinction. Picked up a plain, dwarf-sized iron ring in the Mirkwood, and failed my roll against the Shadow taint.

That's one small step toward Sauron for the PC, one giant dismayed gulp for the Player.